Crampon front-point/bail spacing question

Today I received a new set of Blade Runners, and I'm super excited to get to try them out in a couple weeks in the Canadian Rockies! In the past, I've never really dinked with fine tuning the fit of my crampons, specifically with moving around the front bail to change the length of how far the front point/s stick out.

With the Blade Runners, the default position of the front bail looked like it was too far back. The crampons on the right is the default position, while the one on the left is the one I modified.

Any input on which fit looks better?

I prefer the one on the left, b/c I wouldn't want the crampon frame projecting beyond the toe of the boot. But I would make the monopoint stick out farther if that's possible.

Disclaimer - I don't own BR's.

Will Gadd posted this a few years ago and I use it as a basis for determining if my crampons are positioned properly on the boot. Hard to tell from the photo angle exactly if the left sticks out enough as described in this link.

Will Gadd on Crampons

Did you offset the bail on the left?

Bill Kirby wrote:Did you offset the bail on the left?

I did to move the boot forward over the front points.

chrisccc wrote: I did to move the boot forward over the front points.

So you have both ends of the front bail in the same middle hole on the right and left of the crampon? If that's the case the left looks good.

When I say offset the bail I mean you can put the bail in the first hole on the right side of the pon and the other side in the second hole.

Here's a pic of my Rambos. The bail is offset.

Oh I see what you mean. The bail is not offset in my situation.

What is the benefit to doing that?

A more secure fit. Sometimes you have to either crank down the rear bail adjustment of the crampon super tight or offset to stop the crampon from sliding side to side.

Yeah, some boots don't match well with some bails so offsetting the bail make sense. I can't remember what the combo is, but I have to do it with one of my pairs of boots and my BD cyborg crampons. Better, more secure fit.

Ryan Hamilton wrote:Yeah, some boots don't match well with some bails so offsetting the bail make sense. I can't remember what the combo is, but I have to do it with one of my pairs of boots and my BD cyborg crampons. Better, more secure fit.

I'm going with the frontpoints a bit recessed under the toe. I'm doing a lot of water ice climbing over the next week or so, so I think I'll figure out my ideal setup for water ice at least.

I'll post with my final choice.

Just curious -- have you figured out how to best fit your BRs ?

Mrkb3 wrote:Just curious -- have you figured out how to best fit your BRs ?

Ended up having to cancel all my ice climbing plans up until now for work related reasons. (Gotta buy this fancy gear somehow I guess haha...)

I'm spending a few days on ice next week so I'll post an update then.

Update on the Blade Runner fit -

Having the secondary points recessed as far as possible is the way to go. On harder ice, having the secondary points stick out further made for difficulty in getting a good stick without putting too much leverage on the calves. After a few days of climbing on hard ice (-28C ish), I felt that the secondary points could probably stand to be a bit shorter altogether. In softer ice they did work very nicely though achieving really solid sticks.

Disclaimer: I am not a great ice climber by any means, so maybe everything I am saying is a pile of steaming bs. This is just what worked for me.